He was awarded the Military General Service Medal with six clasps. Following the end of the war, in 1823 he obtained his own company, becoming captain of the 58th Yeomanry of Foot and was posted to the recently built Military Ordnance Depot at Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire. In November 1826 he left the army as a major on half-pay. Retirement In 1866, following the death of his elder brother Thomas Wrey Harding (1783–1866), he inherited the Upcott estate and lordship of the manor of Pilton. On a prominent hill on his estate of Upcott he built a large stone folly, described variously as either a "castellated sham gatehouse" (Pevsner) or a Triumphal Arch, which latter interpretation is believed to commemorate his military service during the Peninsular War. This survives today, somewhat dilapidated, as a prominent landmark visible from the main road between Barnstaple to Braunton. In 1850 he paid for the building of three of the turrets on Pilton Church. He spent the last years of his life working on his huge collection of papers mostly relating to the churches, memorials and families of Devon. These remain unpublished and following his death were deposited in the Athaneum in Barnstaple. A Report on the Harding Collection was published in 1870 by the Devonshire Association. Marriage and children In January 1824 at Weedon Bec he married Ann Elizabeth Jones (d.1893), who survived him and by whom he had two sons, who predeceased him unmarried and without children of their own, and one daughter, who also predeceased him, as follows: Robert William Harding (18241851), eldest son, educated at Blundell's School, matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford in 1842, a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple in 1851. He died in Exeter in 1851 aged 27. His joint monument with his brother is in Pilton Church. Capt. Thomas Henry Harding (1826–1856), Royal Artillery, educated at Blundell's School, died aged 30, buried at Barnstaple, near Upcott. His joint monument with his brother is in Pilton Church. Maria Elizabeth Harding (1830–1846), died aged 16, to whom he erected a monument in St Peter's Church, Tiverton. Death and burial He died on 13 January 1886 at Upcott and his funeral was held in Pilton Church, to which his coffin had been accompanied by a large procession including his tenantry and estate workers. He was buried in the churchyard of Pilton Church, inside which survives his mural monument, on the